For Kaya Coleman, playing Jolie in Beyond Black Beauty is more than just a job. Right from the beginning of our interview with her, it became clear that she connected and identified with the character and was just…made for the role. When we asked her about what made her want to play Jolie, she told us, “for me, I think the first thing that stood out was that Jolie is…an athlete. She’s a competitive athlete, and she’s an athlete in a predominantly white sport.”
Coleman also shared with us her history of competitive cheerleading and how painful it was to not be able to do that anymore. “It felt like my world was crumbling because I just wanted so badly to exist in this sport. And I really resonated with Jolie’s journey” with being on a track to go to the Olympics in equestrian and then having her whole life uprooted.But that’s not the only part of Jolie’s story that paralleled Coleman’s own. “She also wants to make a difference in the sport…And also, my mom was a single mom.”
So, a lot just works here. One of the biggest draws, though — and maybe the most important? “I’m mixed just like Jolie. And I remember that was like one of the few roles I read for where I was like, ‘I get to play a mixed person…this is me! …I get to finally just be myself. And also, Jolie grew up with her white family, which I also did.” She added, “I’m still finding people who have had similar experiences.”
In fact, Coleman is also just very slowly finding roles that represent her experiences. She’s had had occasions where she’d audition for roles, and would be asked if her mom would want to play, well, her mom. “And then, they see her and they’re like, ‘oh, she’s white.’ Then we have to cast [someone else].” It never really made any sense (still doesn’t). “My mom is white. Why can’t she be white in the show?” A question. Unfortunately, it was nothing new for Kaya Coleman. In general, people just…can’t comprehend what being biracial looks like. “I’ve been told I’m too dark to be mixed” she told us. “That was my thing growing up.” People would tell her “you’re…too dark. You don’t look like white enough.”
But, sometimes, the ignorant feedback goes the other way around. “No matter where you are on the spectrum…there’s always someone gonna be like, ‘you’re not black enough’ [or] ‘you’re not white enough.’ Again, I was told by people that I was too Black to be mixed, but then I was told by Black people, I’m too white to be Black.” After living with that experience for so long, Coleman has realized “only you can really have a say on your identity, and it has to come from inside because everyone’s gonna have their own opinions.” She noted that social media makes us more accessible, which also means there are going to be more people with thoughts about who you are. But “you have to block out that noise and find it yourself.”
Bringing it back to the series, Coleman told us, her character Jolie “learns that, I think, throughout the story of…accepting her identity. And I, as Kaya learned as well, because we had a mostly all Black cast.” Remember how we’re always saying representation matters? Yeah. Because things like this happen: “I remember my mom in the show, she was like, ‘Kaya, you’re a Black woman.’ And…I started crying.” That was because she felt “validated and seen. It was very emotional.”
Kaya Coleman on getting young Black and mixed girls into not just her show, but horses in general
Sometimes, if you don’t feel like a world is open to you, you’re not going to watch a series about it. So, we asked Kaya Coleman how she’d bring in audiences who might traditionally look at a show about horseback riding and feel like it’s not for them. We’re going to start with her final word on that and then work backwards because the bottom line is this: “For young Black girls, even if horsemanship is not interesting to them, this is a show made by a Black woman, led by four incredible Black women.” To put it another way, “there’s a story for everyone in there.”
But horsemanship is, as Coleman put it, “for everyone.” Stepping away from the English equestrian that people might be most likely to picture when they think of horses, there’s a huge history out there that often gets erased. “Black cowboys have always existed,” she pointed out. “During the Civil War, actually, a lot of the plantation owners left to go fight, and the people that were enslaved were left to take care of the horses, the cattle, the stables. And so, after the Civil War, there was…this really large population of Black folk who knew how to take care of horses, ride horses. And they have always existed.”
She went on to highlight “Black jockeys in the Kentucky Derby in 1875 that got pushed out in the early 1900s,” as well as several others. “There’s someone like Mavis Spence, who I’ve been following on Instagram since I started this show…She is a Black equestrian who jumps for the US team.” Kaya Coleman told us she wants people to “learn about [Spence] and Ja’Daiya Kursh…the first Black rodeo queen in Arkansas.” The list goes on, so “I just hope people are encouraged to…do more research on their own.”
She also drew attention to Taking the Reins in Los Angeles.
More on Beyond Black Beauty
Some of us grew up reading the same Black Beauty book that Jolie treasures in the series. But is there anything Coleman would do to pitch the show to someone who has never read the book or seen a film adaptation? (Yours truly might have both read the book and worn a hole through her VHS tape of the 90s movie…) For starters, while it’s quite difficult to untangle the series from its roots in horsemanship and the story of a troubled (to say the least) horse learning to trust people, “I feel like my pitch would still be the same. Black family, Black cowboys.”
But there are some great universal themes here, too. “It’s a story about redemption. About finding yourself. It’s about identity.”
However, the series isn’t only about Jolie’s journey with Black Beauty or with her own identity either. “My mom in the show, for example — she’s played by Sagine Sémajuste,” Coleman pointed out, is “a woman who put her career and her ambition aside to follow her husband and support her daughter’s dreams. And now, she’s…coming back to a country she ran away from, her family she hasn’t seen in like over 15 years. She has a gap in her resume.” She added that part of the story is also “so interesting” to her because Janelle (Jolie’s mom) is “one of many characters” who learns similar lessons about “family, and redemption, and how to accept where you are.”
So, what’s next?
When we asked what comes after Beyond Black Beauty, Coleman told us, “I’m really excited to build community in my hometown [of] Calgary.” Then, she pointed out that she’s really looking forward to working with her family on “a not-for-profit corporation that we created when my mother passed away.” That actually brought up one of the difficulties she had when playing Jolie: “it’s a lot to like grieve and also lead a whole-a** show. But I think I gave myself a good time to like, okay, process, grieve.” And now, she says, “I’m ready to give back.”
To learn more about the nonprofit, called the Candace Prokopchuk Single Parent Relief Fund, you can visit their Instagram page here.
Consider what she’s doing next “planting seeds.” Work-wise, Kaya has “some films coming out” and, at the time of our interview, was “in pre-production for a documentary.”
We can’t wait to see what she does next.
Watch our full interview with Kaya Coleman here.
Catch Kaya Coleman in Beyond Black Beauty, now streaming on Prime Video.
